You have to cover all your bases!

Edit: I wrote this bit for the "about this game" of my game's Steam page. It's called Send In The Clown, and it's an hour-long comedy RPG. Steam page here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3766220/Send_In_The_Clown/ .

AI bros praise the AI gamedevelopment so much, creating "GTA LIKE EXPERIENCE IN ONE PROMPT" but they really seem to not want to show other people that this great development method was used on their game, interesting.

Hey everyone!

A while before launching IRON NEST, I made a post here asking for advice on paid marketing campaigns for indie games. Quite a few people were interested in the topic, so I promised I'd come back and share some actual results once we had something worth talking about.

Well, here we are!

First, a bit of context.

We're a two-person indie team, and we didn't originally plan to have a significant marketing budget at all.

Our entire marketing budget came from our community supporting us on Patreon. By launch, that support had grown to approximately $40,000, and we decided to reinvest all of it into promoting the game.

Since that money came directly from our players, we wanted to make the most of every dollar.

We ended up splitting the budget between two very different approaches:

• ~$20,000 - Jester (short-form creator content)
• ~$20,000 - Paid ads (Reddit, X, Meta, and Google)

And honestly, the biggest lesson was that these two approaches served completely different purposes.

1. Jester - Great for awareness, not necessarily for measurable conversions

We initially planned to spend $10,000 on Jester, but eventually increased it to $20,000.

For anyone unfamiliar with Jester, it's a platform that helps you run large-scale campaigns through short-form creator content.

My objective was very specific: I wanted IRON NEST to be everywhere on launch day.

I'm personally not a huge believer in relying on individual streamers for a game's launch. Instead, I wanted a huge number of short videos circulating simultaneously, creating the feeling that the game was suddenly appearing everywhere.

And that's exactly what Jester helped us achieve.

We specifically arranged for the campaign budget to be spent on launch day rather than spread across several weeks.

A few observations:

Geographic reach: I'd previously heard concerns about Jester campaigns generating views primarily from lower-value advertising markets. That wasn't our experience. Our campaign reached predominantly Tier 1 markets, particularly the US and European countries such as Germany and France.

Of course, this doesn't mean every campaign will achieve the same geographic distribution, but I was genuinely happy with ours.

Views: We ended up generating several times more views than initially projected. From a pure reach perspective, the campaign significantly exceeded our expectations.

Flexibility: One thing I appreciated was how open the team was to customizing the campaign. Their CEO, was approachable and willing to discuss different approaches. If you're considering running a campaign, I'd recommend speaking directly with them about what you actually want to achieve.

Budget: Based on our experience, I personally wouldn't feel the need to spend significantly more than $20,000 on this kind of launch-day campaign. For our objectives, that was already a substantial amount of exposure.

However, there's one important distinction:

Jester is an awareness tool, not a performance marketing tool.

If you're looking for precise data showing how many copies your campaign sold, this probably isn't the right approach.

You're paying to generate visibility, reach, and short-form content at scale.

For a launch or major announcement, I think that can be extremely valuable. But you need to understand what you're buying.

2. Paid ads - Where we focused on conversions

The other $20,000 went toward traditional paid advertising.

We tested four platforms:

• Reddit Ads
• X Ads (Twitter)
• Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram)
• Google Ads

Unlike Jester, our objective here was much more performance-oriented.

We wanted to understand how effectively paid traffic could convert into actual Steam sales.

Now, anyone who's tried running ads for a Steam game knows that attribution is a nightmare.

A significant portion of traffic and purchases isn't directly attributable to individual campaigns, so you can't simply look at your dashboard and know exactly how many copies each platform sold.

Instead, we worked with the trackable traffic we had, compared campaign performance, and used estimates and benchmarks to evaluate the results.

These are observations from our own campaign, not universal conclusions.

Our ranking of paid advertising platforms

1. Reddit Ads - One of our best performers

Reddit delivered some of the most promising results in terms of cost efficiency and estimated conversion performance.

Given how specific gaming communities can be, I think there's a lot of potential here for indie developers who understand their target audience.

2. X Ads - Equally impressive

X was another standout.

We managed to generate very competitive results, and alongside Reddit, it became one of our two preferred advertising platforms.

If I were running another campaign tomorrow, these are the two platforms I'd prioritize testing first.

3. Meta Ads - Decent, but harder to evaluate

Meta wasn't necessarily bad.

The biggest issue was attribution. More of the traffic became difficult to track, making it harder to estimate actual sales performance confidently.

Because of that uncertainty, I'd put Meta in a second tier for our particular campaign.

4. Google Ads - Our weakest performer

Google delivered the least convincing results for us.

That's not to say Google Ads can't work for indie games. Our campaign settings, targeting, creatives, and optimization almost certainly influenced the outcome.

But based on our initial tests, it was the platform I'd be least inclined to prioritize again without a different strategy.

3. So, what did we learn?

The biggest takeaway is that awareness marketing and conversion-focused marketing shouldn't be judged by the same metrics.

Jester was excellent for generating a huge amount of visibility in a short period of time.

Reddit and X were much more useful for evaluating the cost efficiency of paid traffic and estimating conversion performance.

Neither approach necessarily replaces the other.

If I were doing it again, I'd probably stick with a similar overall philosophy:

• Use short-form creator campaigns to generate widespread awareness around major moments.
• Use Reddit and X ads for more conversion-oriented campaigns.
• Avoid treating views as equivalent to sales.
• Be extremely careful about drawing conclusions from Steam's incomplete attribution data.

And most importantly, remember that what worked for IRON NEST won't necessarily work for every indie game.

Genre, audience, creative quality, timing, and campaign setup all matter enormously.

4. One last thing

I know $40,000 is a substantial amount of money for many indie developers. It certainly was for us.

We were incredibly fortunate to have a community willing to support our project through Patreon, and I'm genuinely grateful that we had the opportunity to experiment with a marketing budget we originally never expected to have.

I wanted to share these observations because I was the one asking questions here before our launch, and I know how difficult it can be to find useful information about paid marketing from other indie developers.

I'll try to share more post-launch breakdowns over time, including things that worked, things that didn't, and mistakes we've made along the way.

Hopefully, this helps someone planning their own launch.

And if you've run paid campaigns for your own indie game, I'd genuinely love to hear how your results compare, especially on Reddit and X!

Now, I think that that's a LITTLE much, but I appreciated the compliment so much!!
Afterward, we had a long, long chat about the game and their thoughts. The demo *JUST* came out, and they're asking to play more!

It honestly made me a little emotional. It's a big step for sure... Moments like this make all the work I put in worth it, though!!

If you'd like to try it yourself, the free Gauntleteer Demo is now available on Steam!

The main game is your standard metroidvania fare, but while exploring, you will keep stumbling upon these illegible stone tablets. Bring them to the Pedlar, and for a fee of some of these crystal shards (gained by defeating enemies or finding them in hidden places), he will decipher them for you.

Each tablet shows a place in the game world, with a hint to a secret nearby. The tablet in the video shows two platforms (marked with dashed lines) that seemingly aren't there in the game. If you can't work out where the place is, you can pay an additional fee to have the location marked on the map. Then you can set a waypoint and have this white trail show you how to get there. Figuring out the secret itself is still the player's task, though.

Each of these secrets will have been there all along, and they will always point to areas you've already visited, recontextualizing them.

The idea (inspired by Animal Well with its layers) is that you have your run-of-the-mill metroidvania (explore, gain skills, unlock more to explore), then this tablet system for some not-all-that-deep mostly optional metroidbrainia fun on top of that... and then there will be a third layer of more obscure stuff for the types of players who like to go the extra mile. I already have some ideas...

Depending on how deep you dive into the game, the ending sequence will be quite different.

What do you think about this flow?

Hi everyone,

I wanted to make a small celebration post, my game Sizzling (a relaxing exploration game with incremental aspects, made solo with Bevy) got its Steam page approved yesterday and it reached 120 wishlists in its first day with 2 reddit posts !! It feels surreal lol

I know it's not a huge number but for a first day with zero budget I'm really happy, all of it came only from 2 Reddit posts, one on r/incremental_games where I had already shared the free browser prototype a few months ago, and one on r/bevy for the dev side

The alpha prototype is still playable from here if you want to try by the way : https://sizzling.mazz.lol/

The trailer was made for the occasion and I'm really proud of how it turned out ! I'm not a motion designer so it was quite hard to make something satisfying that reveals bits of the game but not too much to keep for later as well, though I'm really happy with the result !

Now the next step is the demo, hopefully soon

Steam page if you're curious : https://store.steampowered.com/app/5008130/Sizzling/

Thanks to everyone here sharing their numbers and advices, reading those posts helped me a lot to know what to expect !

1 or 2? :)

Requesting feedback on website and games. Please post your feedback and comments in the original thread in r/Websites as I'm not OP.

with a spooky twist

I started this game 5 years and 4 months ago, working on it at night after my day job. Steam page went live, and 20 people have wishlisted it. That’s tiny, I know, but seeing that number move for the first time hit different.

It’s called Beast Snap: a monster card battler where 9 planets each play their own way. You build around one planet and splash cards from others. Cards upgrade all the way to Prism, and the art breaks out of the frame.

These are real screenshots from the game. I’d love to hear what you think, and if it looks like your kind of game, a wishlist would mean the world.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4318560/Beast_Snap/

And I'm thinking what else I could add. I'd add pedestrians but I'll work on a city map only in the far far future. For now all my settings are in nature (desert, island, hills, and even the moon), but I gotta find things to smash other than animals. Come to think of it, I could have an astronaut slowly gallivanting around before getting hit by a tire in slow-mo

Errr, yeah, so, first of all, sorry. I know it's blasphemy to use Java for fun, but hey, it's done. You can play at https://ewaldhorn.github.io/wartech/ if you like. Full source at https://github.com/ewaldhorn/wartech of course.

Basically, it's a slightly modern take on a classic RTS style game: You build a base, build some collectors, gather crystals, make units, fight the enemy. And the environment, a little bit. I don't want to give away too much.

This is a Java application that compiles via https://teavm.org/, which is just a fantastic project. Originally this started as a simple "let me refresh my Java for this upcoming interview" project and then I couldn't stop tinkering with it. There's so many bugs, the font needs help, the interface is clunky and I broke sound so badly I ripped it out for now. But it's playable!

I'll be working on it over the next few weeks while I don't have other work, so hopefully I'll get the sound branch merged. Just need to figure out why I crash the browser tab when I play some sounds.

https://www.invenglobal.com/articles/27761/valve-responds-to-developers-fearing-ai-slop-and-clones

IMO the start of nextfest is an important consumer moment and they need to be shown games they are interested in and want to play. Showing them low quaility games (ai or not) just leaves a bitter taste when they were looking for excitment.

Hey everyone! We just got back from exhibiting our game at a major event for the very first time.We’ve been working on a co-op title for about two years now, and thanks to the local Indie Games Foundation, two of us went to staff a small booth at PGA. It was an awesome experience, but also a massive physical challenge. Here are 8 practical takeaways from our booth experience:

1. Two people running a booth is NOT enough Spending three full days on your feet for up to 12 hours straight, constantly pitching and talking to players, completely destroyed our voices and energy levels. If you can bring a third person along to handle food runs or cover short shifts, definitely do it.
2. Lightweight folding camping chairs save legs Having them at the booth allowed us to sit down for a minute during quiet moments, which literally saved our knees. Plus, they came in handy on the overcrowded train ride back home.
3. Always carry a roll of duct tape By day three, our controller cables kept getting loose from constant use, so we ended up taping the wires directly to the pads. Problem solved immediately.
4. Customize your game build specifically for the event Expo visitors are easily overstimulated and want to check out as many games as possible. Your demo should be short, intense, but still introduce mechanics step by step. Before the showcase, we trimmed our demo down to 5 levels (about 15 minutes of gameplay, which was honestly still a bit too long), reduced boss HP so players wouldn't get stuck forever, and lowered objective counts (like requiring fewer bottles to fill a cart in one level) to keep the pace snappy.
5. Have physical merch and giveaways Small items like pins or lanyards are a great way to thank players for their time. Just a heads up on stickers: they were actually banned at PGA for venue cleanup reasons, so check your event's rules beforehand.
6. Business cards make networking easier Pack plenty of them so you look prepared when chatting with press, influencers, or publishers.
7. Don't be shy about approaching creators If you spot a popular streamer standing in line for coffee or the restroom, just say hi and invite them over. People are usually super friendly at these events, and that's actually how we got a few big names to drop by.
8. Put Steam QR codes everywhere We had them on flyers, business cards, and printed right on our main background poster. Most players were happy to scan them and wishlist the game right after finishing their demo run.

Happy to answer any questions if you're preparing for your own booth soon!

I'll spare the details, but it's a strategy card game where you battle with chess-like mechanics and animated sprites/troops. There's a whole story mode with a campaign map as well. Add it to your wishlist if you're interested!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2853880/The_Lords_Game/

Hey everyone! 👋

I’ve built a game called GULP for a game jam, and I’d really appreciate your support!

🎮 Play GULP: https://run.world/jams/octoberjam?game=Sw2Kc9jkJ2eF6jbieKRl

If you get a moment, please give it a try, share your feedback, and vote for it!

How to vote:

1. Sign up on the platform.

2. Go to the October Jam page.

3. Find GULP in the list of games.

4. Click the vote button next to GULP directly on the October Jam page.

Thanks a lot for your support! ❤️

Hello Everyone! I'm creating a PS1 era style game where you control a tank against the AI apocalypse where machines turned on humanity.

For those who grew up with these type of games and are nostalgic, you can play the Demo on steam! (and everyone else ofc)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5152000/MAGNUM_Protocol